Think Complexity, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12. Evolution of Cooperation

In this final chapter, I take on two questions, one from biology and one from philosophy:

• In biology, the “problem of altruism” is the apparent conflict between natural selection, which suggests that animals live in a state of constant competition, and altruism, which is the tendency of many animals to help other animals, even to their own detriment. See https://thinkcomplex.com/altruism.

• In moral philosophy, the question of human nature asks whether humans are fundamentally good, or evil, or blank states shaped by their environment. See https://thinkcomplex.com/nature.

The tools I use to address these questions are agent-based simulation (again) and game theory, which is a set of abstract models meant to describe ways agents interact. Specifically, the game we will consider is the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

Prisoner’s Dilemma

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a topic in game theory, but it’s not the fun kind of game. Instead, it is the kind of game that sheds light on human motivation and behavior. Here is the presentation of the dilemma from Wikipedia (https://thinkcomplex.com/pd):

Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other. The prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge, but they have enough to convict both on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the prosecutors offer each prisoner a bargain. Each prisoner is given the ...